Time In Nicotine

Less than half a cigarette left.
It's sometimes easiest to measure time relative to physical objects.
Half a cigarette left to smoke.
6 hours left before the travelcard runs out.
Two more shots until the bag is empty.

If you measure time that way, you can pretend that any intervening duration doesn't exist. You don't have to count the time during which the half cigarette lies unlit in the ashtray. Anything that happens then doesn't have to exist. Doesn't have to be real.